Since Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shayer and Naftali Frenkel were kidnapped Thursday, the internet and punditocracy have been alive with pointed fingers – at the boys, for not being aware enough while hitchiking, at a “settler” culture of which hitchhiking is a central feature, and especially at the boys’ parents.

“What sort of parent lets a 16-year-old hitchike?”, goes the argument in more editorials and Facebook comments that one would care to mention.

As usual, Women in Green founder Nadia Matar presents a voice of reason and conviction. In a public email distributed on a community-wide email list Tuesday, Matar says simply that life in Judea and Samaria is impossible without “tremping” – hitchhiking – as anyone who lives in Judea and Samaria with teenagers can attest. It’s a tough point to argue – bus service to the yishuvim is infrequent, and often scheduled at inconvenient times.

Even more critical to understand, however, is that hitchhiking is far from the only “dangerous” activity in which Israeli teens routinely take part.

“If we demand our kids to stop hitchiking because of what happened, why don’t we tell people to stop taking buses? You may recall that the Arabs blew up buses by the dozens just a few years ago. And remember Private Eden Attias? He was an IDF soldier stabbed to death by an Arab last November… on a bus near Afula

“Have we lost our mind? Should we stop taking buses?

In addition to the notion that people should avoid buses because of the supposed “danger”, Matar continues to suggest people stop walking down the street to go to a job interview? It’s a dangerous business, Israeli streets, and you wouldn’t want to wind up like Shelly Dadon, the young woman who was killed in November on her way to a job interview.

That’s two Jews in six months, murdered by Arabs in Afula. Perhaps we should pull up stakes and pull out of Afula? And remember another teenager by the name of Gilad Shalit? He, and our other MIAs, were all kidnapped not while hitchhiking but serving in the army. Perhaps the answer to that dangerous activity is to fold up the IDF

Instead of running from every “dangerous” situation, Matar proposes asking only two relevant questions;

How come the Arabs still have the audacity to carry out terror attacks against Jews- whether it is kidnapping, killing, stone throwing etc…

What should Israel do to deter the Arabs once and for all from harming Jews?

“There are many answers to these questions-,” she writes, “all related to once and for all getting rid of the Oslo mentality and returning Israel to the path of Zionism and Jewish sovereignty over its land.

“Until such time as our leaders understand that point, we, Am Yisrael, must continue to live as a free people in our land. We must continue to build, settle, plant, walk and drive and take buses in Eretz Yisrael and yes, also to continue to hitchike.

“Safely. Period.”

Meir Halevi Siegel

About the Author:Meir is a news writer for JewishPress.com - and he loves his job.

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We tremp because there is no descent bus service into the small yeshuvim & moshavim. It is impossible to get from our yeshuv to the city with out tremping, not everyone owns a car & there is no public transportation.

People hitchhike here even though warnings are out about the dangers that can occur. Some have hitched for years and never had anything dangerous happen to them. It is like this, hitchhike at our own risk or swim at your own risk(lifeguard not on duty in this area)

Like you said Miriam they need to be aware of hitchhiking and what there alternatives are to hitching a ride. Some take a chance and are always okay and others go missing. Same thing for us if our car breaks down and our cell phone won't work in that area, then what do we do.

Being Jewish is dangerous. about 15 yrs ago a number of Jews walking to Shul in the Jewish neighborhood of Chicago where shot by a Nazi. So walking to shul on Friday night is also dangerous. Fact is that we really need to recognize that Rabbi Meir Kahane was right when he aid we needed to separate fro the arabs and induce them to move to arab lands and make all of the Land of Israel the Land of Israel. What shoud have been done in 1967 was to annex all of Eretz Yisroel, while late, it is better late then never. Now is the time. Stop cowtowing to forieng infulences and do what G-D wants for the Land of Israel as a Heritage to the people of Israel forever.